That thread on purism has far too many hat references.

When I recall idealized images of past greats, I envision either no hats or Hogan's beret.

In a sincere historio-sartorial inquiry I ask - when did professional golfers start wearing headgear that is more suited to baseball players or interstate truckers?

What's next, shorts?

Gene Archer wore a white hat with the word "Amana" on it, from 1971-72 or so. Then Trevino broke the damn, with his "sombrero" hats (Merry Mex).

I think Steve may be right with the Amana connection....like everything else, it all comes down to money.  Pre-Amana, you had some professional golfers such as Hogan and Snead wearing hats, but not caps, and without logos on them.  Amana, with their big, puffed up, white caps with HUGE logos, blazed a trail.  Before them, most pros went without hats...think Palmer and Nicklaus in the 60s and 70s.

Back in the early 70s, my Dad was the tournament chairman of the Iowa section of the PGA.  He set about looking for sponsors to sweeten the purses of their club pro tournaments, and approached Amana, an Iowa-based company.  They said sure, they'd kick in some money for the Section Championship, effectively doubling the purse, if ALL the pros competing wore Amana hats during the tournament.  When my Dad took this proposal to the section members, he had a HUGE fight on his hands, as all the smooth, sophisticated Iowa club pros in their plaid sansabelts and pointy collars did NOT want to have a big white puffy cap messing up their bubble perm!  Eventually, like on tour, money talked and they relented.

I wonder how much a genuine 1970s era Amana cap goes for on e-bay these days?

I just watched a few highlights from the 1975 PGA championship on the Golf Channel.  Nobody was wearing a hat.

Thanks for the informative responses.

Now Shivas, if this were merely about "the hats work", there would be a long flap in the back and the necks on tour would look much better.

I know that you know that the history of fashion is more interesting than that.

That thread on purism has far too many hat references.

When I recall idealized images of past greats, I envision either no hats or Hogan's beret.

I recall Sam Snead wearing a wide-brimmed hat often.  When did he start that?

To me, a beret looks a lot different than Hogan's hat.

What's next, shorts?

With the advancement of clothing wear (from 3-piece wool suits comfortable only in winter), comfort and heat exhaustion surely played a part in some "movements", including short-sleeved shirts and not playing with knit shirts and ties.  Even sweaters were commonplace in the 50's and 60's and often on days that had to be in at least the 70's.  Talk about sweatin' to the oldies.   Certainly it's easy for you to wear long pants all the time, you live in Maine.  Come visit me in North Carolina in July at 2:00pm and keep those long pants on.  Lather up the sun screen too, to keep the intense sun off your otherwise unprotected face/eyes and glare-laden glasses.

Some traditions are worth keeping, some aren't.

Paul

I think Los Angeles CC still requires long pants for men and skirts for women.
 Shorts are permissible at Merion;unfortunately, I did not know this when I was invited to play there on a typical Philadelphia July day- 95 and humid. I showed up in long pants and was soaking wet when I walked off 18. Luckily, I stayed in their famous showers for at least 30 minutes.

Steve

I believe it's long pants only at MPCC, though Mr. Huntley could certainly confirm.  Not much of an issue there, though... there aren't many days there that one would feel too hot wearing long pants.

This rule isn't all that uncommon.

TH

I'm looking at a picture from our newspaper's vaunted library.

The date stamp shows NOV 19 1962.

Left to right, it shows Jerry Barber (in baseball cap with a "[indecipherable] Country Club" logo), Jack Nicklaus (hatless), Gary Player (hatless) and Gene Littler (in baseball cap with a logo consisting of a backward capital-R back-to-back with a frontward capital-B).

------------------------

And now I'm looking at a 1929 picture, taken at the opening of Keller Golf Course in St. Paul. Seven golfers are lined up on the first tee. Six of the seven are wearing Hogan hats. All seven are wearing knickers. Five of the seven are wearing checked Argyle socks. Can't tell for sure, but it looks as though three are wearing cardigan sweaters, three are wearing pullover sweaters, and one (the only round one) is sweaterless. Two have open collars; two have buttoned collars; one is wearing a standard necktie; one is wearing a bowtie; the seventh's collar is under his sweater. Four are wearing spectacles. One is smoking a cigarette; one is smoking a cigar.

I wonder: If this group were to rematerialize on the first tee at Keller today, and our photographer were there to shoot them, what would strike people as the most anachronistic thing in the picture?

I like looking at her a lot better than I do Hogan, Scott!

All I know is that my doctor told me to always wear a hat and SPF30

No cheating. Who remembers (other than me) what kind of hat Gary Player wore in his 1974 masters victory?

A beanie?

By which I mean, more formally: A tam-o'-shanter.

I was 14 years old in 1974 but didn't watch golf. I just have an image in my head of Gary Player at the Masters with a some sort of logo on a white baseball cap.